Can our school run a colour run without a fundraising company?
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Yes. Your school can organise the colour-run event and use Raised for student sponsorship pages, class teams, QR codes and online donations. You choose suppliers and rewards rather than buying a packaged programme. Appoint an event lead and a campaign administrator, and budget for payment fees as well as the event.
What does Raised do, and what does the school do?
Raised provides the online fundraising campaign. Each student can have a sponsorship link, and Teams Mode groups participants into classes or houses. The organiser can import members from CSV and review campaign payments without combining separate paper sponsorship forms.
Your school arranges the venue, course, supplies and volunteers. Agree participation arrangements and follow the school's event approval process before announcing a date. Colour powder and prizes are not included with the platform. Contact Raised with setup questions before launch; a dedicated campaign manager or event staff are not included promises.
What is a workable planning timetable?
This is a suggested timetable, not a promise that every school can be ready in four weeks. Allow longer for approvals or supplier lead times. Give each task an owner, including parent questions and the final payment check.
- Four weeks before: agree the purpose, event lead, course, participation options and supplier quotes.
- Three weeks before: create the campaign, choose class teams and approved display names, then review privacy settings.
- Two weeks before: test student links and checkout, share the family message and begin sponsorship.
- One week before: confirm volunteers and supplies, send a reminder and communicate any weather contingency.
- After the event: close under the published timetable, reconcile fees and invoices, and thank supporters with the amount retained.
How do you decide whether this approach suits your PTA or P&C?
Use a self-managed campaign when your committee can name someone for the activity and someone for the online administration. The same person can do both if the workload is realistic. A managed provider may suit a school that needs someone else to handle campaign setup and family queries; ask for those services in writing.
Compare the complete budget, including what supporters pay. In New Zealand, Raised normally adds the 5% platform fee and Stripe fees to donations, with an option for the organiser to absorb fees. In Australia, donation fees are deducted by default unless the donor chooses to cover them. Neither approach removes the cost of powder, equipment or rewards.
Can younger children take part without an account?
Yes. An organiser can add a student with an approved display name and no email address. A parent, caregiver or teacher shares the student link. A student added without an email does not log in or receive onboarding emails.
Privacy mode hides public member lists and leaderboards. Direct student links remain viewable and show the approved display name and team, so they should be shared according to school policy. If public class competition is essential, review that requirement alongside privacy before choosing the settings.